I currently have an 84 RX-7 that I only drive in the warm months, and a 2001 Buick Century that I drive when the snow and salt hits the road. However, the Buick has garbage intake gaskets that leak coolant, and a ticking connecting rod that I believe is due to a loose wrist pin.. Thank you General Motors for not building anything solid in the last 20 years. So, I need ideas for a reasonably practical but also fun to drive daily. The Buick is not valuable enough to have the motor rebuilt, and I'm not really confident in my mechanical skills to do it myself, so I think it would be wise to look for another car. Does anyone drive their J Tin daily? I'm thinking a Cressida might be a wise bet. What else do you guys drive when the nostalgics are tucked away for winter? I'm looking to spend about 2 or 3000.. Any suggestions are appreciated..

My JTin will only be a warm weather vehicle also.

My DD is a 99 Altima. KA motor is bad ass and it has OBD2 so if some sensor crap goes out, it is diagnosed alot easier. Just wish I would have got one with a manual, but thats what my toys are for lol.

I would say anything import, 96 or newer. Just for ease of troubleshooting. Camry, Corolla, Altima, Sentra, Protege, Civic, etc.

_________________
Money Pits:
- 1980 Corolla Hatchback - Power project
- 1988 Celica Alltrac - Snow fun project

I drive a supercharged AW11 MR2 every day, it covers 600km a week on average.

No need for any more than 2 seats, still has capacity to carry stuff if necessary, great for around town parking and manoeuvring, and surprisingly thrifty for a forced induction vehicle (8L/100km, whatever that is in imperial measurements!)

4A-GZE goes forever and ever as well, with regular servicing and care.

oh and above all, it's fun to drive. Why settle for a boring bland commuter car?

_________________

I agree that it would be nice to drive something exciting on a daily basis, like the mr2.. my last daily driver/winter car before the Buick was a 1974 BMW 2002.. which was a blast except that the heater didn't work. Although we do get snow and ice here, I am kind of hoping to find something rwd, and I can just get snow tires.

My stock 75 280z is daily Admittedly I'd had it off the road for the best part of the last year while I fixed the... Everything, but now I have a great daily with working AC and heater, not that I live in a place where the heater ever gets used. 1k monthly as commute, typically.

Our other car is an 86 300ZX which sees significantly less use. I'd recommend either, for different reasons.

_________________

Get something with a 3TC man!! I got my '82 Corolla with a 289,000 3TC for $500 and have been daily driving it for a year with no problems what so ever! Switch the stock carb for a 32/36 Weber and it will be even better. These 3TC's are invincible, I drive the heck out of mine and have run it out of oil by accident twice, just put in more oil and it started right up; it just won't die!! I was commuting 45 miles one way daily for like 4 months going to college and it did fine.

Plus you can get a low mileage 40-50,000 engine pretty easily with the tranny for like $300-400. There's less then 50 wires under the hood so it is easy to work on. I rebuilt the carb by myself and have never done anything like that before. Can't go wrong with a 3TC man, although don't expect to be passing cars in the fast lane that much anymore haha. From point A to B though I probably won't own another engine as long as I can get a 3TC. I guess that makes me a fanboy haha.

My recommendation, rally car.
I can't think of a better daily than something that's not only practical but meant for driving through hell and back without breaking.

Unfortunately in the U.S. you don't exactly have access to some of the best rally cars, otherwise I'd recommend any of the Lancer Evolutions from 1 to 6, those were all homologation models. My buddy has an Evo 5 putting down around 350 awhp and it's frighteningly quick and just never breaks. Outside of that, I'd say shoot for an Imprezza, I can personally vouch that those things can take a beating, be crashed multiple times, spun, jumped and just driven stupid in general and never give up. Another buddy of mine had an STI Spec C and he crashed it at the track maybe 4 times, jumped it off the track once, used it to destroy cones at highway speeds and just generally beat the hell out of it and it never stopped.

Those are expensive though, moving down to the cheaper and light weight side of fun rally cars, shoot for something hatchback, 2 door and light weight. See if you can find a 1982 2-door Nissan March (Micra) from Canada and import it (you may have to wait until 2012 for it to turn 25). Those cars weigh something like 700 kg, are carb'd (which means you can swap on bike carbs with little effort) and with the right persuasion can be a blast to drive. I currently own the ultimate k10 March, the Super Turbo, as a daily driver and I can vouch for it being hilarious amounts of reliable fun. Hmm, I guess this would be easier to just make a list, haha.

Any Lancer Evolution (Unforunately blows your 2 to 3 grand limit out of the water)
Any Imprezza WRX (See above)
Mitsubishi Galant VR4 (cutting it tight for 3 grand)
Mazda 323 GTX (although closest you can get in the states is the AWD Protoge from the early 90's.. also have no idea how much these run)
K10 March (should definitely be doable for less than 3 grand)
Toyota Starlet (any model really, although no clue if they were ever sold in the states)
Celica GT4 (any of them, though they might blast your 3000 limit out of the water as well)

Breaking away from the rally car idea, there's lots of fantastic cars out there for peanuts. I would strongly recommend an Infiniti M30. It's a nice sedan and, unfortunately, auto only. The engine however, is a VG30 so a 5 speed swap is pretty brainless. I bought one for 600 bones and swapped a 5 speed into it for less than 200 bucks. Not only that, the whole underside of it is practically identical to an N/A Z31, so there's lots of options for suspension and fun bits. It has the potential to be a very nice, cheap, people hauler that can double as something quite fun.

Alright, I could go on all day talking about cars I'd love to buy for daily drivers, but I'll leave it at this for now, haha.
Hope some of these ideas help!
Cheers
David

_________________
1967 LT23 Mitsubishi 360 // 1967 L10A Cosmo Sports // 1971 S30 Fairlady Z // 1973 PR95 Bellett 1800 GT // 1973 Honda Life // 1988 Z31 300 ZX SS
My Homepage!

Thanks for the help! A Galant vr-4 would be awesome, though they are a little rare to find around here.. I'm looking hard for a clean sentra se-r, and I just realized the Infiniti G20 came with an sr20 and a 5 speed, so that sounds like a fun car.. I'm finding high-mileage Lexus SC 300/400s for under 3000, are those quite reliable or overly complicated and expensive to fix? I should probably keep it simple and shy away from luxury cars loaded with electronics.. The awd Protege would be a dream car but they're also pretty rare. Are there any obvious fun-to-drive cars I'm overlooking?

I think if I were looking for a good daily driver, I'd find a good running 200sx and slap on some Hoshino Impul wheels for good measure.

The more I see pics of the Super Silhouette race car, the more I want a 200sx.

As much as I like these, dailying my Laser TX3 (exact same mechanicals and floorpan as the GT-X) for four years was a right pain in the arse.

The main gripe was the power sapping (and weak, ironically) drivetrain. Stellar on a twisty tarmac road at above 60km/h, but boy, round town driving was incredulously tiring.

_________________

I am eyeballing a 79 Corolla right now for daily driver duties. Got to be better than the 2010 Ram R/T I drive currently... Well, better on gas anyways

_________________
1979 Toyota Corolla